Anthology Lesson: "Fog"

Anthology Lesson: "Fog"

This lesson , we will look a little further at the poem "Fog"!

Points for the class:

• Point 1: Determine imagery, mood, and sound, and relate imagery (p. 52) 

• Point 2: Relate and analyze author's purpose and the imagery (p. 52)

•  Point 3: Determine poetic devices, recall details from text, relate metaphor and poem's action (p. 53)

"Fog" by Carl Sandburg

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

What is imagery?

📌 Imagery is a literary device that paints pictures with words, helping readers envision a scene. An author is likely using imagery any time you can clearly "see" something he or she is describing.

What is mood?

📌 Mood is the atmosphere, or emotional state, that prevails throughout a work.

Multiple Choice

Why does Sandburg describe the fog as coming in on "little cat feet"?

• Cats have claws and they can make marks.

• Cats are lightweight and you often can't hear them creeping around.

• A fogbank looks like a cat.

• The fog is grey and white, like a cat.

Multiple Choice

What effect is Sandburg trying to create when he describes the fog sitting on "silent haunches"?

• He wants the reader to picture a cat that is still and quiet.

• He is describing a cat about to pounce.

• He is saying the fog is lazy.

• He is painting a picture of the gray shade of the fog.

Multiple Choice

Given the image Sandburg creates of fog rolling in, how should we picture the fog leaving?

• in a great gust of wind

• rising up toward the sky

• galloping away

• silently and sneakily

Describe the mood of the poem. How does the image of the cat help add to or reinforce the mood?

📌 The mood of the poem can be described as mysterious, still, or thoughtful. The image of the cat reinforces the idea of the scene as mysterious and quiet--the cat can move without being heard and leaves as silently as it came in.

Sandburg's short poem creates a vivid image in only a few lines. Describe how you "see" the poem--explain the picture it creates in your mind.

(What does it make you imagine?)

(Possible responses to Q5 on p. 52)

What does the poem make you "see"?

📌 The gray fog sneaks into the city slowly until it covers it. It lingers around the harbor for several hours, leaving it silent and dark, until it rolls out as mysteriously as it arrived.

Multiple Select

What sound do you associate wth the fog in this poem? How does Sandburg create that sense of sound?

• the "sound" of silence and stillness

• the sound of crying and weeping

• the sound of people screaming

• the sound of the wind rustling

Poetic Devices: Metaphor vs. Simile

📌 A metaphor is often poetically saying something is something else.

vs.

A simile is saying something is like something else.

Multiple Choice

What is the primary poetic device used in "Fog"?

• simile

• metaphor

• alliteration

• rhyme

Multiple Choice

What is the fog being compared to?

• the city

• the harbor

• a cat

• tiny feet

Multiple Choice

When Sandburg describes the fog sitting on "silent haunches" it suggests that:

• the fog is not moving.

• the fog is close to the ground

• the fog is mysterious

• the fog is dense

Describe what is happening in the first stanza. How does the metaphor of the cat give readers insight into the poem's action?

📌 The first stanza describes the fog moving into the city, silently and stealthily, as mysterious as a creeping cat. The metaphor helps emphasize what the cat and fog have in common: being mysterious and quiet.

Homework: What are other ways you might describe fog settling in on a city? What other metaphors come to mind?

(Whether it be another kind of animal, another thing in nature, a sound, etc, think of 1 or 2 more ways you could describe fog and answer the question in your microsoft form!)